How to evaluate a user interface for usability

Abstract

Testing is central to all forms of design practice. From code inspections to wind tunnels by way of consumer panels and tea tasters, testing provides feedback to inform and validate design proposals. For user experience design, testing is paradoxically both critical and widely neglected. Even mature design teams can fail to predict what will happen when their design is exposed to the real world. When silicon meets carbon, expect the unexpected! This tutorial will a) outline a range of empirical and inspection methods used in current design practice; b) present a structured approach for designing and planning a study; and c) provide a practical and detailed introduction to using a popular inspection method known as Heuristic Evaluation. Heuristic evaluation, proposed by Jakob Nielsen, is a structured form of inspection in which a multidisciplinary panel of specialists inspects a design using a set of heuristics, rules of thumb for usable design. Specialists individually role play users attempting a task and record their observations and subsequently vote on the severity of each of the aggregated findings. Heuristic evaluation is practical, cost-effective, and easy to learn; is an excellent complement to testing with users. The material will be covered by lectures, discussion, exercises, and an extended hands-on case study in which delegates will use Heuristic Evaluation to assess a proposed design for mobile shopping technology.